If you think the familiar tale of the scorned girlfriend gluing her boyfriend's genitals to another part of his body is nothing but an urban legend, consider the charges in a lawsuit filed by Pittsburgh resident Kenneth Slaby against his former paramour, Gail O'Toole: "battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress" resulting from his buttocks being fused together and his private parts affixed to his abdomen with superglue — all because he broke up with the woman after 10 months of dating. It's a case that "should have been left in the bedroom," the defendant's attorney pleads, but really, where's the fun in that?
Ditto previously unconfirmed reports of prank victims finding themselves superglued to toilet seats in public restrooms. It really happened to Colorado resident Bob Dougherty, according to a suit filed against Home Depot last week. The plaintiff says his cries for help were ignored by employees after he realized his buttocks were stuck to a toilet seat in the men's room of the company's Louisville, Colorado store. Workers apparently thought the victim was playing a prank on them and waited 15 minutes before calling an ambulance. When paramedics finally arrived, they had to disconnect the toilet and wheel it out of the store with Dougherty still attached, "frightened and humilated."
If you ask me, it's just one more argument in favor of the routine — make that obsessive — use of toilet seat covers in public restrooms.
Update: In a follow-up news story, a former official of Nederland, Colorado is quoted as saying that Bob Dougherty claimed to have been superglued to a toilet seat again in 2004. The incident allegedly happened in the restroom of the town's visitors center, but, says one-time director of operations Ron Trzepacz, he inspected the facilities personally and found "no indication that anything had been on the toilet seat." Dougherty could not be reached for comment.
Update: As noted on Boing Boing, Dougherty's lawyer says his client never claimed he got stuck to a toilet seat in Nederland. "The allegation doesn't make any sense," he told AP, adding that Dougherty is willing to take a polygraph test.
Read all about it:
• The Uses and Abuses of Superglue - About Urban Legends
• Lawsuit Says Former Girlfriend Really Stuck It to Him - Post-Gazette
• Customer Sues After Toilet Seat Prank - AP
• Jury Rules Against Woman in Genital Gluing - AP
• A Big 'But' Arises in Toilet Seat Story - AP
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